The Forgotten Vaults
by newvegas
Summary: The story of a lost vault and one mans escapade into the unknown. As rumors of a new war surface can Nathaniel fight through the perilous obstacles that stand between him and preventing The New War?
1. Prologue

The Forgotten Vaults

For centuries after the nuclear fallout in 2077 people have been slowly making their way out of vaults all around the USA. Some made a life in the wasteland, some were too weak, or just unlucky and feel prey to the many dangers of mutants, raiders, ghouls and all other atrocities that spawned from the apocalypse. Some vaults were unreachable, some lost, but generally they were all remembered, or empty by now.

But almost nobody in the entire USA knew about the vaults across the sea. This may have been partly because they were known to only a select handful when they were created. As the year 2293 was about to draw to a close, a message from the USA was sent out using a super strength transmitter on December 21st. It was only by luck they had rediscovered the forgotten vault, having only come across an old text found by one mischievously nosey little whiz kid in Vault 101 who decided it would be fun to hack into the overseers terminal. On doing this he discovered a hidden safe, containing long lost secrets. This started a chain reaction leading to a decision by the fabled lone wanderer to make it his duty to contact vault 207, one of 8 vaults located in the UK.

'Come in vault 207. Come in…do you read me?' It was the vault's radio, the words coming out all crackly as a result of it not being used for a number of years. After all, why would anybody want to contact vault 207? They were all alone. There used to be some contact between the vault and other vaults around the UK but that died out between a hundred years before or even three hundred, depending on who's story you believe.

'Is anybody there? This is Washington DC contacting vault 207 in London…Can you hear us?'

It didn't take long for the occupants of vault 207 to respond to incoming transmission. 'Vault 207 here, finding it hard to hear though. The radio hasn't been used for sometime.' It was the unforgettably harsh, confident sound of Nathaniel Casey. He was, although his voice and appearance would make you think otherwise, a kind-hearted, warm and caring man. 'We thought we had been forgotten, hahaha!'

'Unfortunately, you had for some years until we found documents of the foreign vaults.' This naturally didn't come as a surprise to the few vault dwellers left under the streets of London. 'But now that we've finally been able to contact you, we need to know something…has anybody left the vault?'

'Nope. Not a soul. We couldn't even if we wanted. None of us have any idea of what the door code is, and we haven't found it on any of our systems here. So we've been down here, trapped in this…hell. No way in, and no way out. It's the same thin, day in, day out.' The anger was mounting in his voice, by now he was even shaking a little bit. This topic, it was clear to anybody, was a sensitive one for Nathaniel.

'There is a way out.' The mystery voice revealed. 'We have the code for the vault door. No information on what it's like up there, I'm afraid, so we don't know how risky it would be for any of you to go up there. That is up to you. If you do plan on going up there make sure you have plenty of supplies, and report back to us if you can. We're keen on finding out how your nation fared since the fallout.' There was silence, and then the code was read out. '9292' The transmission ended, leaving the stunned and slightly confused dwellers of vault 207 with a tough decision to make.


	2. Chapter One Leaving The Vault

A silence befell for just a few moments; until…'I'm leaving the vault'

It was Nathaniel, looking both brave, yet at the same time, nervous.

'I have to. For years I have waited for a moment where I could find out what was beyond this. Never have we had a chance to look past these walls, and now we can. I'm not missing this for anything.'

Silence, yet again. He began gathering things he thought he might need on his adventure. A few stimpaks, some rad-x, some rad-away, a few bits of food and drink, but most importantly, weapons. He could only carry so much, but he collected whatever he could. By the time he had searched the vault he had with him a small pistol, a few grenades, some light armour and some scrap metal. He didn't even find that many bullets; ten or twelve at most. He was, to say the least, less than prepared to begin a life in the wasteland.

Suddenly, a small boy came forward from the crowd that had now gathered around Nathaniel, something in his hand. 'Here take this; I know you'll need this out there. It'll keep you safe.' Stretching out his arm, he held an old ring. This was no ordinary ring though. It had been passed down through generations from when the vault door first closed. It was considered the most highly regarded item in the vault and the new keeper was chosen only by whoever held it at the time.

'Thank you. I will keep it close and I shall make sure above everything else I keep it safe until the day I return. Never give up hope if I'm gone for what seems an eternity, for I shall find a way back.' And with that he punched the code into the interface of the vault door's control panel: 9, 2, 9, doors slowly slid open making the most unbearably loud, screechy sound of metal scraping across metal, revealing a long, dark, eerie tunnel. At the end of it was another door made of super strength metal that managed to withstand the nuclear blasts from hundreds of years ago. As he approached it he noticed yet another interface which he again entered the code into, and the doors opened. Nathaniel entered what seemed to be a lift, and within moments he was ascending, heading straight towards the surface.

Between the moment when the lift stopped and when the doors opened again, it felt like an eternity for Nathaniel, despite it only being a few seconds. He held his breath as he stepped forward into the dusty wasteland just as the sun began to rise.

The rising sun made the sweat on Nathaniel's well, slim, structured face glisten. He wiped his brow and began to wander slowly and cautiously forwards. He couldn't be stealthy after all, due to his tall stature coupled with his large muscles, caused by dedicated, rigorous and often long workout routines whilst in the vault. He had always been one for improving himself, testing his body's limits in the hope that he would become the best he could be. Unfortunately, no matter how strong or how healthy he was, he could never help but feel he could always get tougher, stronger, fitter. Not only did he want to become physically advanced but he enjoyed personally improving himself, always helping others regardless of what he wanted.

His hard work and dedication had paid off. He had grown handsome, strong, and was kinder than anybody you could ever meet. But kindness was one thing he would discover was not very handy in the crumbling, derelict streets that used to be London, at least not most of the time. There were some good people out there, but there were also some filthy people too. Without realising it, Nathaniel had taken his first steps into a world full of thieves, murderers, conmen, cannibals, and general scumbags. Friends would be few and far between out here, and he would have to get used to it fast. If he didn't, then he may follow the same fate as so many before him had: he would end up in a pool of his blood, whether he be dead or just wounded, mugged of all his equipment and just left there. Cannibals may eat him, mutants might make a tasty snack out of him, or just as likely, he would just rot away slowly over time.

Making his way down the quiet street, Nathaniel was awestruck to say the least. He had no idea how the world had crumbled when the bombs fell. Never in his wildest nightmares would he have imagined something like this. Pavements were split everywhere in huge chunks, with huge holes everywhere; buildings were crumbling to the ground and there were bodies scattered around everywhere. He was so surprised by the site he failed to notice how fresh one of the bodies actually was. The body was that of a man killed by a lone raider who was just wandering through the area moments before Nathaniel arrived from the vault. Noticing Nathaniel's large size, the raider played it safe and tactical, quickly hiding out of view waiting to make his move.

Unaware of the danger he was in, Nathaniel ventured further from the vault. Considering nobody had ever left the comfort and safety of vault 207, a few hundred metres was quite a distance. Looking back towards the vault, he felt something was amiss, and took this moment to load his 10mm pistol, and kept it firmly held in his right hand. Moments later the raider made his move, he pounced on the back of the unaware victim, knocking him forwards slightly. Somehow the gentle nature of Nathaniel disappeared instantly revealing a side of him that nobody had ever seen. Promptly pivoting towards his attacker he readied his fist…it connected perfectly, the crunch of bone confirming the direct hit to the raider. Stunned, the raider dropped his weapon. Without thought, the victim who had now managed to gain the upper hand, fired 4 shots into the abdomen of his attacker, killing him swiftly and relatively painlessly.

The thing that worried Nathaniel the most was that he seemed to not mind fighting to death. In fact, he somewhat enjoyed it. Noticing the now dead raider had a few boxes of bullets and some stimpaks on him, he knew that taking them wouldn't be wrong. He had his first taste of the wasteland minutes after leaving vault 207 and he had a strong feeling it would not be pleasant. Searching the ground for the weapon he knocked from his attacker's hand, he was a little bit disappointed to see that he himself only had a 10mm pistol as a weapon. Just as he was about to walk away he reconsidered and picked up the gun. 'This may just come in handy sometime' he said to himself aloud.

Setting off on what had already proved to be a new experience a few things came to mind for Nathaniel. _Who else was out there? What will I have to do to survive? How long can I survive? _And perhaps the most troublesome thought was: _What can I do to help? _It seemed that even when dealing with peril and survival, he still wanted to help out and better himself. Would this be a recipe for disaster or just a ray of hope in the otherwise dim world?


End file.
